My Stupid Van

I'll just start out by saying, I HATE MY STUPID VAN! Was that harsh? Let me explain. Kenny's family was having a campout over the weekend and our cars have never been fans of the Newbry family campout. The last time they had a campout was 4 years ago when we were moving back from Virginia the first time. We were suppose to be in the west in time to go to the campout, but a few hours into our drive, Somerset Pennsylvania to be exact, the transmission on our car went out and we were stranded for almost a week while we wait for a new transmission. This lead me to the current camping trip and the current van that must hate Newbry camping trips as much as our old car. Don't worry it wasn't our transmission that went out, instead it was our engine. What are the odds? Two family camping trips in the 9 years I've been married to Kenny and both times something major has happened to our car just days before the trip.

Here's the story. Tuesday the 29th, Kenny got up to go to work and heard the car making a not good noise. He called me and told me we may have a major problem with the van. He got home from work that night and changed the oil and played with the spark plugs. We both new that wasn't the problem, but we were hopeful. The next day the noise was still there and we were nervous about taking it in to be looked at. We were nervous for a good reason. I'm not good with cars so this may be wrong, but Kenny said something about the piston rod and the engine not being serviceable. Whatever the reason, we were told we needed a new engine. Having to put a new engine in your car is never good news, but with the Newbry camping trip the next day we were overly upset knowing that we were going to have to miss it. The mechanic found an engine in nearby Pocatello and told us he could have it in our van by Tuesday for around $3000. Ouch! I hate my stupid car!

The story does end happy, well parts of it. Kenny's sister Karen volunteered to come get us Wednesday night so we could go to the campout. They drove all the way up from Logan just so we could go camping. We were very grateful and were so thrilled to be able to go (I'll save that story for the next blog.) We dropped our car off at the mechanic on our way out of town Wednesday night and when we got back we discovered the engine in Pocatello wasn't ready and so our van won't be done until at least Friday. We got a rental car for the week and hopefully we'll have a van by next week.

As much as I hate that van and all the stuff happening right now I do have to be grateful that it happened when I was here and not in Virginia by myself or worse on the drive across the country. It's nice to have Kenny here to know what to do.